By Beth Winter has finally arrived in my part of the world, and with it I turned into an itchy, scaly, red mess from head to toe. So when I went out to get some emergency exfoliant, I also decided to upgrade my body lotion and see if I could get the scratching under control. Since I use Aveeno lotion to help control eczema on my hands, I decided to go for the Aveeno Active Naturals Daily Moisturizing Lotion ($10.50 at Amazon). The bottle claims that this stuff "moisturizes for 24 hours," to which I said "Ha!" but took a... Continue reading

By Beth One morning a couple of weeks ago I glanced at myself in the mirror and noticed that the entire top layer of skin on my right cheek was about to peel off and land on my shoe, and I decided it was time to replace the exfoliant that I ran out of early last spring before I started frightening innocent children. So I took myself off to the nearest drugstore for an emergency supply until I could order the fancy-dancy stuff I used last year. I faced a shelf with bottle after bottle of products with words like... Continue reading

By Beth My husband and I have made four joint trips to New York City, and for the first three trips never set foot on a subway. This caused problems like excessive amounts of walking, crazy taxi budgets, and once getting stuck in Lower Manhattan during a cabbie shift change and trying to walk 70 blocks north in time for a Broadway show. After that experience, I swore I would not return to New York until I had mastered the subway. Luckily for me, HopStop mastered the subway for me. HopStop is a free (with ads, paid for: ad-free) mobile... Continue reading

By Beth The last time my husband and I went to NYC, we arrived at Penn Station in the middle of a driving rain storm, a cab was not to be had for love or money without standing in a 100 person line at the cab stand, and we were terrified to take the subway (more on that later), so we walked 14 blocks to our hotel. It was not fun. By the time we made it indoors my shoes were soaked as were my pants to the knees and I had decided that I hated New York and wanted... Continue reading

By Beth You know what I just discovered I don't have as I was packing for the trip to New York I am taking in 12 hours? A fancy jewelry organizer. Possibly I don't have one because I don't travel all that much and I don't take all that much jewelry when I do. If I had one, I would want one like this: Nothing big, nothing fancy, nothing over ten dollars. I sort of really want one now. But since I leave in 12 hours, even Amazon's fastest shipping is no help to me. What I do have is... Continue reading

By Beth I have a set of glass nesting bowls that my mother gave me when I was in college, and they are great, except that they are not at all attractive and the largest one has a broken rim and while I still use it I know it is time to let it go. But come on, these things are bead sorters and guinea pig feeders and play-dough cutters and oh yes, I do occasionally use them in the kitchen. But they really need to be replaced. So when the Crate & Barrel catalogue arrived several weeks ahead of... Continue reading

By Beth Are you in the market for six good books? Ok, that was a daunting question. Are you in the market for a six-part series of stories that together total about the same number of pages as a perfectly reasonable book? Well if you arent, you should be, and you should read Wool. For one thing, the Wool Omnibus Edition, which is Books 1-5, is $5.99 on Kindle. Book 6 is only $3.99. The books are post-apocalyptic and I would also call them science fiction and dystopian, but if those things aren't your bag no problem as they are... Continue reading

By Beth Look, I know this is two days late, but I am so stinking proud of my Halloween costume innovations this year that I have to post them in the vainglorious belief that they are good enough for all you nice people to remember for next year. Also, I should point out that my son wore a fully store-bought costume at every opportunity this Halloween season. I'm not crafty at all by nature, which likely explains why I feel the burning need to toot my own horn ever time I pull off something remotely homemade. Ok, first costume. We... Continue reading

By Beth A couple of weeks ago, my little family was sitting around the dinner table talking about the books we liked, and my husband and I were running through the books we had read as kids when I suddenly remembered Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and bolted from the table to order it from Amazon that very second. No, it couldn't wait, and no, I couldn't get it from the library because we needed to own it and no, I don't know how I forgot about it for seven entire years of parenting. Oh Charlie. Oh Roald Dahl. James... Continue reading

By Beth I recently renovated my kitchen (I swear I have at least six months of material starting with that sentence) and one of my favorite additions is something I bought on the cheap and hid away in a drawer. But really, huge difference in my life right here. That's my silverware. My 16 place settings of silverware because my children us a new fork or spoon for each type of food they are served that never ever fit properly in the plastic organizer I had before. And wait until you see this: Would you like a wooden spoon? A... Continue reading

By Beth So, I just renovated my kitchen. Actually, "renovated" doesn't do it justice. I just took my kitchen down to the studs and put it back together again. And by "I" clearly I mean "the many men I paid to do this on my behalf." Let's move on. My kitchen was just extensively renovated, after a two-year planning period which consisted mostly of sitting on the couch with my husband talking about what I pain it was going to be to have no access to the first floor of our house for however many weeks, which it was, but... Continue reading

By Beth My hairdresser is moving. Not to the other side of the country or anything, just the next town over, but it is a little far to go for a hair cut. And frankly, I've been thinking it might be time to make a change anyway. Not that I don't like her, because I really do, and not because she doesn't do a good job, because she is excellent, but maybe time for a change anyway. You see, I've been seeing the same hairdresser for a long time now. I don't even remember how long, exactly, but I know... Continue reading

By Beth A while ago I bought a Spa Sonic when it was one of the Target Daily Deals. The Spa Sonic is a knock-off of the Clarisonic Mia. I chose the Spa Sonic because it was significantly cheaper and also because I have a daughter named Mia and I refuse to own an appliance that shares a name with my eldest child. I used it for a couple of days and it has lived under my sink ever since. A ringing endorsement, no? However, I recently hauled it out to give it another try, and here's what I think... Continue reading

By Beth So, I just renovated my kitchen (and you can probably expect all of my posts for the forseeable future to begin with that very same sentence), and the very first thing I noticed about my new kitchen was that there was no way I was putting an ugly old bottle of dish soap next to the sink of my beautiful new kitchen. So I went to Amazon and perused every single option on offer and overruled all of my husband's selections and chose this one: It is the Chef's Planet Dish Soap Cruet, $11.09 at Amazon. It is... Continue reading

By Beth I just finished a complete kitchen renovation, which included moving the wall between the kitchen and the dining room, which made the dining room too small for my current dining room set, so I am in the market for a new, and quite small table. I found the almost-perfect table at the very first place I looked, which happens to be a furniture store that is going out of business, which means the price is right and I have to decide quickly. Here's what I found: The thing that is so perfect about this table is that with... Continue reading

By Beth Yes, I can hear you all thinking "Beth went to Target and found yet another t-shirt that she feels compelled to tell us about, as if she hasn't already told us about ten different Target t-shirts and doesn't she know that nobody needs that many Target t-shirts." I see your point, I really do, and had in fact vowed to take a Target t-shirt hiatus. But, then, this happened: This is the Merona Womens Gathered Neck Top in "Ruby Hill," and it is the end-all be-all of $10 Target t-shirts. This is the shirt that I not only... Continue reading

By Beth So, I recently jumped on the Birchbox bandwagon. This was an unusual move for me, since most days the fanciest beauty product I employ is toothpaste, but it sounded like a fun, cheap thing to try for a couple of months so here we are. (Also, for anyone put off by the waitlist thing, the time from requesting a subscription to getting one was a grand total of 20 days. I suspect Birchbox may be stalling to build a sense of exclusivity.) My very first Birchbox contained a beauty tips book that I gave to my four year... Continue reading

By Beth When my husband and I bought our first home, we started almost immediately to add secret messages to it. Everytime we had to move something semi-permanent to paint around it - a bathroom mirror, the refrigerator, etc. - we added a secret message behind it before we put it back into place. So, behind the mirror in the master bedroom it says C.B. loves B.B. and the date we painted it. The mirror in the upstairs hall bath hides my daughter's name, put there before she was born and before anybody but us knew what her name would... Continue reading

By Beth First off, yes, it is terrible that I did not remember to tell you about this back in April or May, since the performances for this summer are over, but let's just pretend we are all super organized advanced planners and make a note about this for next summer. Ok? Great. So, if you live near or are travelling to the Washington D.C. area and are in possession of at least one smallish child, you will want to check out the Children's Theatre-in-the-Woods at Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia. Wolf Trap is a national park dedicated to the... Continue reading

By Beth Yes, I know it is still early August and that Halloween is still far, far away, but I wanted to throw this out there now for any advance planners out there (or anyone else who is just about done with 100 degrees and 96% humidity and wants to think cool, crisp, autumn thoughts for a while). So, here's what drives me crazy about Halloween. Where I live, Halloween is cold. Winter coat cold. And Halloween costumes are made of flimsy nylon, which requires me to actually try to get them on over said winter coats. (No, we cannot... Continue reading

By Beth Do you have a kid? Does your kid like to swim? You need to get your kid some swim fins. We have two pairs, and every time we arrive at the pool I am immediately swarmed by neighborhood kids asking for a turn with our swim fins. They make you faster, they make you more bouyant, and to hear the girl children tell it very nearly turn you into a mermaid. Here's the catch, to be the swim fin hero of the family/neighborhood pool, you are going to have to shell out a bit. The hard plastic ones... Continue reading

By Beth I recently bought myself a (refurbished, super cheap) Kindle Fire, and then my husband surprised me with this Dodo case: I love it. The outside is leather and the inside has a bamboo frame to hold the Kindle. It is lightweight and the front cover folds all the way back so you can easily hold your book in one hand. They are made for various devices and designed to resemble hardcover books, supposedly to protect against theft, but I just think they look awesome. (Photo credit: amazon.com) Continue reading

By Beth My daughter is turning seven this week, and getting her birthday gifts was hard. Seven year old girls can be surprisingly hard to shop for - too old for so many things and too young for so many others. Here's what's on the list for mine: The Punisher Cherry Blossom Complete Skateboard. Hey, she wants a skateboard, go figure. We looked at the princess-y ones but the reviews weren't so good and this one is pink and awesome but is still called the "punisher." Sold. A couple of Lego Friends sets. Dear Lego, why did it take you... Continue reading

By Beth If you have ever been to Washington D.C., there is a good chance you visited the Air and Space museum on the mall. But you probably missed the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, which is another branch of the Air and Space Museum that opened several years ago in Chantilly, Virginia, which considering that my hometown is "the Northern Virginia suburbs" is in my hometown. The museum itself is great, full of fascinating things like a space shuttle and a stealth bomber and the Enola Gay and ultra-lights and helicopters and on and on and on. But every year... Continue reading

By Beth My daughter is almost seven and has hair past her waist. (All her idea, definitely not mine, I keep telling myself it is good practice for when she comes home with a blue mohawk.) She is also a swimmer. In the summer, we go to the pool at least twice a day almost every day, sometimes three times depending on the swim practice/swim meet/pool playdate schedule. Dealing with her hair in the summer can drive a girl to drink. But this year, I finally solved it! To deal with pool hair (especially a couple feet of pool hair)... Continue reading